Why Chris Christie won’t be president - By Joan Walsh

It's not his size, it's his temper, as he tells a former White House doctor worried about his weight to "shut up"

BY JOAN WALSH

I’m not a fan of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, although I respected his bipartisan stewardship during Hurricane Sandy. But I’ve defended him, on “NOW With Alex Wagner,” to offer one example, from charges that his weight disqualifies him from being president. Obesity is first and foremost a health matter, even if scolds try to make it a matter of discipline. There’s also a huge class bias in our preference for thinness today. Obviously Christie isn’t someone who can’t afford healthy food or to get the weight loss help he needs, at this point in his life anyway. But a lot of working and middle class people can probably identify with his inability to lose weight and keep it off. Certainly Bill Clinton’s struggles with his own size were part of what endeared him to common folks. It also set him up for serious heart disease in his 60s.

Uh oh, but I shouldn’t have mentioned health issues related to being overweight, because we know that sets Christie off — particularly, it seems, when an uppity lady brings it up. Everyone’s heard about the governor’s heart-warming star-turn with David Letterman, despite Letterman’s repeated and sometimes cruel jokes about his weight. Now we’re hearing about the way he chewed up former White House doctor Connie Mariano, a Republican and a fan, for warmly expressing concern about his weight, calling her a “hack” and telling her to “shut up.”

The mellow Chris Christie showed up Monday night and munched on a jelly a donut, cracking up the crowd. But he also talked about his health. “I’m basically the healthiest fat guy you’ve ever seen in your life,” he told Letterman, revealing that recent medical tests show his blood sugar and cholesterol levels are normal.

The next day, he continued to open up about his weight. “If you talked to anybody who has struggled with their weight, what they would tell you is `every week, every month, every year, there’s a plan,’” Christie told reporters on Tuesday. “The idea that somehow I don’t care about this, of course I care about it, and I’m making the best effort I can.” He acknowledged on and off dieting over the next 30 years — “Sometimes I’m successful, and other times I’m not,” he said — and confessed “there is a plan” for him to focus on his weight once again. “Whether it’s successful or not,” he said, “you’ll all be able to notice.”

1. Christie takes a well-intentioned warning and makes it criticism.

I also see his response to be akin to climate change denial, a denial of science generally. The doctor was stating well documented, well researched studies. It wasn't meant as a personal criticism of his medical records.

While theoretically he could be correct (that his personal physicians are monitoring him, have him on appropriate medical protocol of blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, etc. and that it's a blanket statement that all morbidly obese people have a risk of shortened lives), Christie could have used the situation as an opportunity to urge all other overweight/obese people to seek medical attention. Or advocate for universal healthcare to allow overweight/obese people the same opportunity that he has to extend his life.

BTW, as for his 12 year old son allegedly and ingenuously asking him if he was going to die, are you kidding me? The kid couldn't look at his father and wonder about his mortality? When I was 12, my mother was in the hospital with phlebitis and I wept, thinking about a clot that could break off and travel to her heart or lungs. Nobody had to tell me I should be scared.

2. What she says is that it is his thin skinned responses to mild criticism which will not play well

with voters. And I agree. There are already damning videos out there of his over the top responses to mild criticism. The heat of a national campaign will generate many more. And while voters may reward blunt talk, thin skinned overreactions will eventually make them look elsewhere.

4. right

He is a very nice fit ...

For New Jersey, where caustic is part of the DNA.

National stage, you can't be going off on people like he does.

It will take an event, like 9-11, or something that causes a singular focus that the republican's can take advantage of like that, for them to positively frame his personality/temperament for him to be a viable presidential candidate.

Short of that, he just is no viable.

In the end, people in mass like their pols pretty bland - Romney, McCain, Bush, Kerry.

BO and the Big Dog can make a run, but they were incredibly positive in the nature.

3. When it comes to Republicans, anything that makes them relate to 98%

of the population is welcomed. Walsh is right, Clinton related to overweight white (Republican) guys, and Bush related to the many "Fox informed" people who are, unfortunately, my freaking neighbors! But in the end, who the hell could Rmoney relate to?" A very scary 60 million people.